… di traverso a gas aperto e senza freno anteriore …

Christian, but not as we know it – Grace Davie

The problem, of course, is made worse by the effects of secularisation, one of which is the systematic loss of religious knowledge. It follows that necessarily sensitive debates are very often engaged by people who, literally, do not know what they are talking about – with respect to their own faith, never mind anyone else’s. It is little wonder that things get out of hand.

Europe has been changed fundamentally by an influx of peoples from around the world. But faith, and Christian faith, remain part of its basic character

The question: is Europe’s future Christian?

Is Europe’s future Christian? My answer is “yes” but not in the same way that it is now.

Predicting the future about religion in Europe is, however, tricky as more than one thing is happening at once. On the one hand, Europe is becoming markedly more secular; on the other religion is rising in the public agenda of both the EU as a whole and its member states. These contradictory “forces” are brought about by different things, but have occurred at the same time. Why is this so and what are the consequences?

It is abundantly clear that the historic churches of Europe are losing the ability to discipline both the beliefs and behaviour of the vast majority of Europeans. That does not mean that they have entirely lost their raison d’être – they continue to have a significant role in the lives of both individuals and communities, most obviously at times of celebration or loss. They are no longer able, however, to exert any form of control. This is a European story, brought about for European reasons – quite different, for example, from the continuing religious vitality of the United States, or indeed the rest of the world. The process is unlikely to be reversed and will lead, other things being equal, to an increase in secularisation in most parts of the continent.

Other things, however, are not equal, given that the rest of the world is arriving in Europe – pretty fast. It is important to remember, however, that the influx of new forms of religion into Europe has been brought about for economic, rather than religious reasons. In the 1950s and 1960s, the expanding economies of “old Europe” were looking for new sources of labour; in the 1990s almost all European nations were seeking to compensate for the imbalance in their demographic profiles, as domestic populations grew older. Either way, new communities have arrived, which understand their religious lives very differently from their European hosts.

Among them are forms of Christianity which challenge the historic churches of Europe – in terms of fervour as well as belief (they are markedly more conservative). Among them also are other-faith communities, some of which do not fit easily into societies which regard the privatisation of religion as “normal” practice in a modern democracy. Hence a series of heated controversies about the wearing of the veil in the school system, about the rights or wrongs of publishing material that one faith community in particular finds offensive, and about the location of “non-European” religious buildings. There have been moments, moreover, when a lack of mutual comprehension, and an unwillingness to compromise, have led alarmingly fast to dangerous confrontations.

The problem, of course, is made worse by the effects of secularisation, one of which is the systematic loss of religious knowledge. It follows that necessarily sensitive debates are very often engaged by people who, literally, do not know what they are talking about – with respect to their own faith, never mind anyone else’s. It is little wonder that things get out of hand.

What is to be done? Europe should recall its religious heritage, rather than deny it, and build on its positive dimensions – those of generosity and welcome. Europeans, moreover, should ensure that there is a place in their societies for those who take faith seriously, whatever that faith might be. These people will still be disproportionately Christian, but in ways rather different from their forebears. Little will be gained, conversely, by denying the realities of the past, by contempt for the seriously religious, and by the (sometimes deliberate) cultivation of ignorance about faiths of any kind.